Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I want you to picture my

client, Donna Osborn as a young high school teacher, who decided that

she wanted to obtain her Masters degree. So, Donna left her job as a

high school teacher to peruse her Master’s Degree in English at U of R

graduate school. Once finished, she planned to return to teaching.

While Donna was working on her degree, she met and fell in love

with a man named Clinton. They were married in 1988 in a lavish

wedding. Donna soon became pregnant and in December Clinton III (aka

Chip) was born. Something changed in Clinton when Donna became

pregnant. Clinton began to act very possessive of Donna, and he became

very jealous of the men working on their new house. At this time

Clinton began being verbally abusive.

Clinton’s verbal abuse increased as the years went on. He

eventually became physically abusive. While Donna was pregnant with

Chip, Clinton had pushed her down. It was after the birth of Chip that

Clinton began leaving visible signs of his abuse on Donna. Donna early

on believed that there was hope that things would get better.

The evidence that will be presented will prove that Donna was

suffering from battered woman’s syndrome. Our expert will testify

there are four stages of this disorder. She will tell you how Donna

went through every one of those stages during her relationship with

Clinton.

We will prove that on the night of February 14 Donna Osborn had

no choice but to fight back against her abuser or be killed. Clinton

had one thing and only one thing in mind. He wanted to make sure that

his wife Donna would no longer be living. So, Donna got the courage

and fought back against her abuser to protect her son and herself from

the abusive behavior of Clinton. Donna is now on trial facing second

degree murder charges. Donna’s only way out was to either be killed or

to permanently stop her abuser. The evidence that will be presented

will show that Clinton was not going to allow Donna to leave their

house alive.

Does Donna need to serve time in jail for getting the courage to

stand up to her abuser? No, the evidence will prove that Donna is in

need of counseling to help her recover from all of the years of

psychological, emotional, and physical abuse from Clinton.